Advances in computing and related technologies have led to increase sophistication in application of these technologies. In particular, in many applications, a variety of tasks are to be performed automatically. At the same time, for energy consumption and other reasons, increasingly more and more devices operate in reduced power or partially off state, presenting problems for automated task performance.
For example, home networks connecting more than one home network device are becoming increasingly popular fueled by many factors including the growth of broadband internet usage and the proliferation of digital media. As a result, many consumers enjoy movie and television watching, hi-fi listening, recording and dubbing using various devices attached to the home network. A great number of home networks have non-conventional network devices, such as Consumer Electronic (CE) devices that also have the ability receive and store digital media.
The growth in the number of these home network devices poses challenges of managing and protecting irreplaceable personal data and digital media, such as digital photographs, personal digital videos and other personal multimedia content. Moreover, each home network device attached to the home network may generate personalized multimedia content such as music, recorded television shows, and downloaded videos to be managed.
At the same time, there has also been a growing awareness of relative energy consumption of all the various electronic devices associated with the home network. In addition to the more traditional consumer initiated shutdown mechanisms on personal computers (PCs), the industry has also developed several modes of reducing the energy consumed by these devices through either standby or hibernation modes when the devices are not actively being used. As a result, a device in a power conservation state may not be available at a given time or may require additional time to transition to a more active state for tasks to be automatically performed.